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25 June 1868 1. 15 Stat. 77.

Eight hours to

constitute a

day's work.

Laborers.

1. Eight hours to constitute a day's work.

1. That eight hours shall constitute a day's work for all laborers, workmen and mechanics now employed or who may be hereafter employed, by or on behalf of the government of the United States; (a) and that all acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act be and the same are hereby repealed.

(a) See opinion of Attorney-General Hoar, on the construction of this act. 2 Am. L. T. Dep. Rep. 80. This opinion, however, has been overruled by the president.

I. REGULATIONS OF THE LAND OFFICE.

1. Fees for exemplification of patents, &c.

II. DISTRICT LAND OFFICES.

Lands.

2. Additional fees for services in consolidated offices. Limitation.

3. Allowance for rent and clerk-hire.

4. To extend to all consolidated offices.

5. Allowance to former officers.

6. Act for extra allowances for clerical services repealed.

7. Discontinuance of land offices.

III. SURVEYS OF PUBLIC LANDS.

8. When contracts for surveys to be binding.

9. Instructions to be deemed part of the contract.

10. Prices of surveys established. Accounts. When patents to issue.

11. Settlers in any township may have it surveyed. Terms. 12. All claims and grants to be surveyed by the proper officers. Titles not to be affected thereby.

IV. SURVEYORS-GENERAL.

13-14. Utah and Colorado to be a surveying district.

15. Surveyor general of New Mexico to act as register and receiver. Duties of register and receiver may be transferred to any surveyor-general.

16. Salaries of certain surveyors-general.

17. New Mexico and Arizona to be a surveying district. Idaho and Nevada united to Colorado. Dakota and Montana to be a surveying district.

18. Surveyor-general of Nebraska and Iowa.

19. Surveyor-general of Montana.

V. REGISTERS AND RECEIVERS.

20. Compensation of registers and receivers. When to com

mence.

21. Salaries and fees.

22. Additional compensation of certain officers.

23. Fees for locations under special grants.

VI. PRE-EMPTION RIGHTS.

24. By whom appeals to be decided.

25. Settlers upon school lands, before survey, with a view to pre-emption, to have such right. Other lands appropriated. Deficiencies in sections 16 and 36, when fractional, to be com pensated for. How such lands to be selected.

26. Pre-emption rights extended to California. When declaratory statement to be filed. Pre-emption rights not to extend to mineral lands.

27. Fees of registers and receivers.

28. Time for making proof of pre-emption right, extended in certain cases.

29. Owners of homesteads upon certain mineral lands to have right of pre-emption.

30. Such lands to be set apart for sale or pre-emption. 31. Islands in the Great Miami to be subject to pre-emption. 32. Lands along the Pacific railroad.

33. Lands in the Sioux reservation.

VII. SALES OF PUBLIC LANDS.

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42. To be appraised. And sold in lots.

43. Disposal of town lots. Rights of actual settlers.

44. Extension limits, how adjusted.

45. Penalty for neglect to file map, &c.

46. Powers of secretary of the interior.

47. Location of town sites. Price of lots. Rights in mineral veins.

48. Municipal authorities may enter town sites, in trust. Entry. Amount of land. Where there is no land office. Excep tions.

49. Inhabitants may avail themselves of the privilege given by the act of 1867. Costs of survey.

XII. HOMESTEADS.

50. Heads of families may enter a quarter section of land. 51. How application to be made. Fees. When certificate and patent to issue. Affidavit. Right to vest in children. Title of purchaser.

52. Record of applications.

53. Not to be subject to prior debts.

54. In case of abandonment, land to revert.

55. Not more than one quarter section to be thus acquired. Rules and regulations to be established. Pre-emption rights not to be impaired. Minors to be entitled to the benefit of this act in certain cases.

56. Punishment of false swearing.

57. Applicant may purchase, at minimum price, at any time. 58. Before whom persons in the military or naval service may make affidavit.

59. Commissions of registers and receivers.

60. When clerks of courts may take affidavits.

61. Homestead law extended to certain states. Restrictions.

62. Homestead law to be applicable thereto.

XIII. LANDS DONATED TO THE STATES.

63. Lands donated to the several states.

64. How apportioned among the states. From what lands to be selected. When scrip to be issued. Location. 65. How expenses to be paid.

66. Proceeds to be invested. Interest to be applied to collegiate purposes.

67. Conditions of the grant. Fund to be kept at interest. Not to be applied to building purposes. College to be erected within five years. Annual reports. Computation of lands. States in rebellion excluded. Assent to be given within two years. 68. When scrip to be subject to location. 69. Fees.

70. Annual reports to congress. 71. Time for acceptance extended. 72. Extended to West Virginia.

73. Not more than three sections to be entered in one township. XIV. MINERAL LANDS.

74. Mineral lands to be open to exploration and occupation. 75. Patents may issue for veins or lodes of quartz, &c., running beneath adjoining lands.

76. Proceedings to obtain patent.

77. Proceedings in case of unsurveyed lands. 78. Powers of local legislatures.

79. Settlement of adverse claims.

80. New land districts may be erected.

XV. LANDS ceded to the United States.

81. Unproductive lands may be rented.

XVI. RECLAMATION OF SWAMP LANDS.

82. Act of 1850 extended to Minnesota and Oregon.

83. Selection to be made within two years.

XVII. LANDS NORTH OF THE OHIO AND EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 84. Office at Vincennes continued.

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XIX. LAND CLAIMS IN FLORIDA, LOUISIANA AND MISSOURI. 89. Claimants to apply to commissioners for confirmation of their titles. Proceedings.

90. Appointment of commissioners. Their powers.

91. Claims to be classified. Claims heretofore rejected as fraudulent not to be confirmed.

92. Duties of commissioner of the land office.

93. Claims disapproved to be reported to congress.

94. Compensation to claimants whose lands have been disposed of.

95. Testimony before a former board to be prima facie evidence.
96. Lands claimed not to be sold until final decision.
97. Fees for recording papers to be prepaid.

98. Reports to congress.

99. Proceedings where lands are claimed by complete grant or concession. Jurisdiction of the district court. Appeals. Effect of decree.

100. Duration of act.

XX. LANDS IN OREGON AND WASHINGTON.

101. Laws extended to lands east of the Cascades.
102. Subdivision of donation claims.

103. Failure to file notice, not to work forfeiture in certain cases.
XXI. GENERAL PROVISIONS.

104. Right of way in the public lands. 105. Customary possessory rights, &c., to be protected. Construction of ditches and canals.

I. REGULATIONS OF LAND office.

13 Stat. 375. Fees for exempli

cations of par ents, &c.

1. All exemplifications of patents, or papers on file, or of record in the general land 2 July 1864 ? 1. office, which may be required by parties interested, shall be furnished by the commissioner of said office, upon the payment by such parties at the rate of fifteen cents per hundred words, and two dollars for copies of township plates or diagrams, with an additional sum of one dollar for the commissioner's certificate of verification with the general land-office seal; and one of the employees of said office shall be designated, by the said commissioner, as the receiving clerk, and the amounts so received shall, under the direction of the said commissioner, be paid into the treasury of the United States; effect to be given to this act according to such regulations as may be prescribed by the secretary of the interior, not inconsistent with the laws of the United States: Provided, That the fees stipulated in the foregoing provisions shall not apply to such authenticated copies as may be required by the officers of any branch of the government, nor to such unverified copies as the commissioner, in his discretion, may deem proper to furnish.

II. DISTRICT LAND OFFICES.

12 Stat. 131.

for services in

2. The register for the consolidated land districts at Booneville, in the state of Mis- 18 Feb. 1861 21. souri, in consequence of additional duties imposed upon him, and in addition to the fees now allowed by law, shall be entitled to charge and receive for making transcripts for Additional fees individuals, or furnishing any other record information respecting public lands or land consolidated offtitles in his consolidated land district, such fees as are properly authorized by the tariff ces. existing in the local courts in said district: Provided, The whole amount of the register's Limitation. compensation, including all fees and commissions to which he is entitled under existing laws, shall not exceed three thousand dollars per annum, or pro rata per quarter; the excess, if any, over that amount, shall be paid into the treasury of the United States; and the receiver shall receive his equal share of such fees, and it shall be his duty to aid the register in the preparation of the transcripts, or giving the record information as aforesaid.

Ibid. 2.

Allowance for

hire.

3. That the secretary of the interior be and he is hereby authorized to make a reasonable allowance for office-rent for such consolidated office, and when satisfied of the necessity therefor, to approve the employment by said register of one or more clerks, at rent and clerka reasonable per diem compensation, for such time as said clerk or clerks are absolutely required to keep up the current public business, and who shall be paid out of the surplus fees above authorized to be charged, if any, and if no surplus exists, then out of the appropriation for incidental expenses of district land offices; but no clerk shall be so paid unless his employment has been first sanctioned by the secretary of the interior. 4. That the provisions of this act be and they are hereby extended to all other consolidated land offices: Provided, That this act shall be construed to extend to and provide This act to exfor all expenses heretofore incurred by any register or receiver of any such consolidated tend to all consoland office, for additional clerical aid or office-room: Provided further, That the amount of such indemnity be first approved by the secretary of the interior.

5. It shall be the duty of the secretary of the interior to make a reasonable allowance

Ibid. 3.

lidated offices.

Ibid. 4.

to former registers of consolidated land offices, for room-rent and clerk-hire, made neces- Allowance to forsary by such consolidation, to be paid out of the appropriation for incidental expenses mer officers. of district land offices, upon satisfactory vouchers actually filed or to be filed.

12 Stat. 133.

6. That the 7th section of the act of the 18th of August 1856, (a) "making appropria- 19 Feb. 1861 § 1. tions for certain civil expenses of the government for the year ending the 30th of June 1857," be and the same is hereby repealed.

12 Stat. 409.

7. Upon the recommendation of the commissioner of the general land office, approved 30 May 1862 8 5. by the secretary of the interior, the president may order the discontinuance of any land office, and the transfer of its business and archives to any other land office within the Discontinuance same state or territory.

of land offices.

(a) 1 vol. 469, pl. 61

30 May 18621. 12 Stat. 409.

Ibid. 2.

Instructions to be deemed part

of the contract.

Ibid. 3.

Accounts.

III. SURVEY OF PUBLIC LANDS.

8. Contracts for the survey of the public lands shall not become binding upon the United States, until approved by the commissioner of the general land office, except in such cases as said commissioner shall otherwise specially order. (a)

9. The printed manual of instructions relating to the public surveys, prepared at the general land office, and bearing date February 22d 1855, the instructions of the commissioner of the general land office, and the special instructions of the surveyor-general, when not in conflict with said printed manual, or the instructions of said commissioner, shall be taken and deemed to be a part of every contract for surveying the public lands of the United States.

10. The commissioner of the general land office shall have power, and it shall be his Prices of surveys duty, to fix the prices per mile for public surveys, which shall in no case exceed the to be established. maximum established by law; and under instructions to be prepared by said commissioner, an accurate account shall be kept by each surveyor-general, of the cost of surveying and platting private land claims, to be reported to the general land office, When patents to with the map of such claim. And patents shall not issue for any such private claim until the cost of survey and platting shall have been paid into the treasury of the United States by the claimant.

issue.

Ibid. 10.

Settlers in any township may have it surveyed.

Terms.

2 June 1862 21. 12 Stat. 410.

All claims and

grants to be surveyed by the proper officers.

Titles not to be affected thereby.

14 Mar. 1862 4. 12 Stat. 369.

do to be a surveying district.

11. When the settlers in any township or townships, not mineral or reserved by government, shall desire a survey made of the same, under the authority of the surveyorgeneral of the United States, and shall file an application therefor in writing, and deposit in a proper United States depository, to the credit of the United States, a sum sufficient to pay for such survey, together with all expenses incident thereto, without cost or claim for indemnity on the United States, it shall and may be lawful for said surveyor-general, under such instructions as may be given him by the commissioner of the general land office, and in accordance with existing laws and instructions, to survey such township or townships, and make return thereof to the general and proper local land office: Provided, The townships so proposed to be surveyed are within the range of the regular progress of the public surveys embraced by existing standard lines or bases for the township and subdivisional surveys.(b)

12. All claims or grants of land in any of the states or territories of the United States, derived from any foreign country or government, shall be surveyed under the direction of the proper officers of the government of the United States, upon the application of the parties claiming or owning the same, and at their expense, which shall be paid or secured to the satisfaction of the secretary of the interior, before the work shall be performed; but nothing in the law requiring the executive officers to survey land claimed or granted under any laws of the United States shall be construed, either to authorize such officers to pass upon the validity of the titles granted by or under such laws, or to give any greater effect to the surveys made by them, than to make such surveys primâ facie evidence of the true location of the land claimed or granted; (c) nor shall any such grant be deemed incomplete for the want of a survey or patent, when the land granted may be ascertained without a survey or patent.

IV. SURVEYORS-GENERAL.

13. Until otherwise ordered by the president, the territories of Utah and Colorado shall constitute one surveying district; (d) and the duties of surveyor-general in said disUtah and Colora- trict shall be performed by the surveyor-general of Colorado; and the surveying district of Nevada shall be united to that of California, the duties of the surveyor-general of the former shall be performed by the surveyor-general of California; and the transfer of the effects and archives of the said offices shall be made under the instruction of the commissioner of the general and office.

30 May 1862 2 4. 12 Stat. 409.

California.

14. Upon the recommendation of the commissioner of the general land office, approved by the secretary of the interior, the president may order that the territories of Utah Nevada united to and Colorado shall constitute one surveying district, the duties of surveyor-general in said district to be performed by the surveyor-general of Colorado; and the surveying district of Nevada shall be united to that of California, the duties of the surveyor-general of the former to be transferred to the surveyor-general of California; and the transfer of the effects and archives of the offices to be made under the instructions of the commissioner of the general land office.

Ibid. 28.

15. Until otherwise ordered by the president, the duties of the register and receiver of New Mexico shall be transferred to and devolve upon the surveyor-general of that (a) See McKee v. United States, 1 N. & H. 336.

(b) By resolution 1 July 1864, this section is to be construed as an appropriation of the sums so deposited for the objects therein contemplated, and the secretary is authorized to cause the same to be placed to the credit of the proper appropriations for the surveying service: any excess over and above the actual cost of the surveys, and all expenses incident thereto, to be repaid to

the depositors. 13 Stat. 414.

(c) This does not make the survey of a private land claim, though approved by the surveyor-general, primâ facie evidence of the true location of the land confirmed; nor does it dispense with publication of the notice required by the act of 1860. McGanahan v. Maxwell, 28 Cal. 75. (d) See tit. "Utah," 2.

territory; and it shall and may be lawful for the president, in like manner, to transfer the duties of register and receiver in any district to the surveyor-general, where the public interest may require such transfer.

30 May 1862.

Ibid. 9.

general.

16. The salary of the surveyor-general of California shall not exceed three thousand dollars per annum, and [the] salaries of the surveyor-general of Oregon and Washing- Salaries of certon shall not exceed two thousand five hundred dollars each per annum; and should the tain surveyors surveying districts of Utah and Nevada be hereafter established by order of the president, each as an independent district, the salaries of the surveyor-general shall not exceed three thousand dollars each for said districts. (a)

13 Stat. 352.

New Mexico and surveying dis

Arizona to be a

17. Until otherwise directed by law, the territory of New Mexico and the territory 2 July 1864 38. of Arizona shall constitute one surveyor-general's district; the territory of Idaho and Nevada shall constitute and be a part of the surveyor-general's district of Colorado; the territory of Dakota and Montana shall constitute one surveyor-general's district, and that there shall be but one office of surveyor-general for each surveyor-general's district; the provisions of this section shall be executed under such rules and regulations as may da united to be prescribed by the commissioner of the general land office; and all acts and parts of acts in conflict with the provisions of this section are hereby repealed.

trict.
Idaho and Neva-

Colorado.

14 Stat. 344.

of Nebraska and

18. It shall be the duty of the secretary of the interior, as soon after the passage of 28 July 1866 ? 1. this act as may be, to cause the office of surveyor-general of Iowa and Wisconsin to be removed to Plattsmouth, in the territory of Nebraska, and to make the necessary pro- Surveyor-general visions for immediate and effective operations; and when so removed the duties and Iowa. jurisdiction of said surveyor-general shall be co-extensive with the limits of the territory of Nebraska, and include the state of Iowa, and the same shall constitute a surveying district.

14 Stat. 542.

of Montana.

19. The president, by the advice and consent of the senate, shall be and he is hereby 2 March 1867 @ 1. authorized to appoint a surveyor-general for Montana, whose annual salary shall be three thousand dollars, and whose power, authority and duties shall be the same as Surveyor-general those provided by law for the surveyor-general of Oregon. He shall have proper allowances for clerk-hire, office-rent and fuel, what is now allowed by law to the surveyorgeneral of Oregon.

IV. REGISTERS AND RECEIVERS.

11 Stat. 378.

registers and re

20. That the act entitled "An act for changing the compensation of receivers and 2 Feb. 1859 31. registers of the land offices," approved April 20th 1818,(b) shall be so construed by the proper accounting officers of the government, as to restrict the aggregate amount allowed Compensation of as compensation for the registers' and receivers' commissions, on moneys received at any ceivers. land office, in any one calendar year, to the sum of twenty-five hundred dollars each; and that the registers and receivers shall not receive for any one quarter or fractional quarter, more than a pro rata allowance of said maximum of twenty-five hundred dollars. Their compensation, both for salary and commissions, to commence and be calculated When to comfrom the time they enter on the discharge of their duties.

mence.

12 Stat. 409.

21. The compensation of registers and receivers in all the land offices in the United 30 May 1862 3 6. States shall be an annual salary of five hundred dollars to each, with the fees and commissions now prescribed by law, and, to be paid by claimants, an additional fee, in Salaries and fees. donation cases, of five dollars for each final certificate for one hundred and sixty acres, ten dollars for three hundred and twenty acres, and fifteen dollars for six hundred and forty acres; to be accounted for in the same manner as fees and commissions in warrant and pre-emption locations, with limitations as to maximum of salary prescribed by existing laws, and in accordance with such instructions as shall be given by the commissioner of the general [land] office.

13 Stat. 36.

pensation of cer

22. The registers and receivers in the state of California, in the state of Oregon, and 21 Mar. 1864 & 6. in the territories of Washington, Nevada, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico and Arizona, shall be entitled to collect and receive, in addition to the fees and allowances provided Additional comby this act, fifty per centum of said fees and allowances as compensation for their services: Provided, That the salary and fees allowed any register or receiver shall not exceed in the aggregate the sum of three thousand dollars per annum.

tain officers.

1 July 1864 1.

13 Stat. 335.

Fees for locations under special

23. In the location of lands by states and corporations, under grants from congress for railroads and other purposes (except for agricultural colleges), the registers and receivers of the land offices of the several states and territories, in the districts where such lands may be located, for their services therein, shall be entitled to receive a fee of one dollar grants." for each final location of one hundred and sixty acres, to be paid by the state or corporation making such location, the same to be accounted for in the same manner as fees and commissions on warrants and pre-emption locations, with limitations as to maximum of salary prescribed by existing laws, in accordance with such instructions as shall be given by the commissioner of the general land office.

(a) See tit. "Nevada," 19; "Utah," 2. VOL. II.-26

(b) 1 vol. 468, pl. 51-2.

12 June 1858 10. 11 Stat. 326.

By whom ap

peals to be decided.

25 Feb. 1859 1. 11 Stat. 385.

Settlers upon school lands, be

a view to pre

emption, to have

such right.

Other lands appropriated. Deficiencies in sections 16 and 36, when fractional, to be compensated for.

V. PRE-EMPTION RIGHTS.

24. That the eleventh section of the act of congress, approved September 4th 1841,(a) entitled "An act to appropriate the proceeds of the public lands, and to grant preemption rights," be so amended, that appeals from the decisions of the district officers, in cases of contest between different settlers for the right of pre-emption, shall hereafter be decided by the commissioner of the general land office, whose decision shall be final, unless appeal therefrom be taken to the secretary of the interior.

25. Where settlements, with a view to pre-emption, have been made before the survey of the lands in the field, which shall be found to have been made on sections sixteen or thirty-six, said sections shall be subject to the pre-emption claim of such settler; (b) fore survey, with and if they, or either of them, shall have been or shall be reserved or pledged for the use of schools or colleges in the state or territory in which the lands lie, other lands of like quantity are hereby appropriated in lieu of such as may be patented by pre-emptors; and other lands are also hereby appropriated to compensate deficiencies for school purposes, where said sections sixteen or thirty-six are fractional in quantity, or where one or both are wanting by reason of the township being fractional, or from any natural cause whatever: Provided, That the lands by this section appropriated, shall be selected and appropriated in accordance with the principles of adjustment and the provisions of the act of congress of May 20th 1826, (c) entitled "An act to appropriate lands for the support of schools, in certain townships and fractional townships not before provided for." 26. In regard to settlements which by existing laws are authorized in certain states and territories upon unsurveyed lands (which privilege is hereby extended to California), the pre-emption claimant shall be and is hereby in all cases required, from and after the first day of September 1862, to file his declaratory statement within three When declarato months from the date of the receipt, at the district land office, of the approved plat of the township embracing such pre-emption settlement: Provided, The provisions of this section shall not be held to authorize pre-emption and settlement of mineral lands, which are hereby exempted from the provisions of this act.(d)

30 May 1862 7. 12 Stat. 410.

Pre-emption

rights extended to California.

ry statement to be filed.

21 Mar. 1864 4. 13 Stat. 35.

and receivers.

27. In lieu of the fee allowed by the 12th section of the pre-emption act of 4th September 1841, (e) the register and receiver shall each be entitled to one dollar for their Fees of registers services in acting upon pre-emption claims, and shall be allowed jointly at the rate of fifteen cents per hundred words for the testimony which may be reduced by them to writing for claimants, in establishing pre-emption or homestead rights; the regulations for giving proper effect to the provisions of this act to be prescribed by the commissioner of the general land office.

tion right ex

Cases.

Ibid. 25. 28. Where a pre-emptor has taken the initiatory steps required by existing laws in Time for making regard to actual settlement, and is called away from such settlement by being actually proof of pre-emp- engaged in the military or naval service of the United States, and by reason of such tended, in certain absence is unable to appear at the district land office to make, before the register or receiver, the affidavits required by the 13th section of the pre-emption act of 4th September 1841, (g) the time for filing such affidavit and making final proof and entry or location, shall be extended six months after the expiration of his term of service, upon satisfactory proof by affidavit, or the testimony of witnesses, that the said pre-emptor is so in the service, being filed with the register of the land office for the district in which his settlement is made.

26 July 1866 2 10. 14 Stat. 253.

steads upon certain mineral lands, to have rights of preemption.

29. Wherever, prior to the passage of this act, upon the lands heretofore designated as mineral lands, which have been excluded from survey and sale, there have been Owners of home homesteads made by citizens of the United States, or persons who have declared their intention to become citizens, which homesteads have been made, improved and used for agricultural purposes, and upon which there have been no valuable mines of gold, silver, cinnabar or copper discovered, and which are properly agricultural lands, the said settlers or owners of such homesteads shall have a right of pre-emption thereto, and shall be entitled to purchase the same at the price of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, and in quantity not to exceed one hundred and sixty acres; or said parties may avail themselves of the provisions of the act of congress approved May 20, 1862, entitled "An act to secure homesteads to actual settlers on the public domain," and acts amendatory thereof.(h)

Ibid. 11.

Such lands to be get apart for sale

or pre-emption.

30. Upon the survey of the lands aforesaid, the secretary of the interior may designate and set apart such portions of the said lands as are clearly agricultural lands, which lands shall thereafter be subject to pre-emption and sale as other public lands of the United States, and subject to all the laws and regulations applicable to the same.

(a) 1 vol. 473, pl. 84.

(b) A person occupying public lands, whether surveyed or unsurveyed, under the pre-emption laws, acquires a right to the possession from the moment of settlement; and the courts are from that time open to protect him. Colwell v. Smith, Wash. T. Rep. 109. And see Ward v. Moorey, Ibid. 122.

(c) 1 vol. 489, pl. 178.
(d) See infra 29-30.
(e) 1 vol. 473, pl. 85.
(g) 1 vol. 473, pl. 86.
(h) Infru 50.

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